A little EEG help please. Slow waves?

[Miche.Seven]

Hi Everyone,

I am new here. I recently learned that the episodes I have been experiencing for the past few years, are actually partial/complex seizures. I'm ashamed to say, that prior to learning this, I had no idea of the complexity of epilepsy or even considered these episodes to be seizures.

I recently received the results of my EEG and was hoping some of you here could assist me. I told the neuro that following the HV of the EEG I felt like garbage and noticed my right hand twitched, went home and needed to sleep. Felt out of it after. After I explained this, he reviewed the results of the test and that following the hyperventilating portion of the test, there were abnormal discharges, a slowing of activity throughout my brain. I'm confused as to what this means and how come it is all over when I have been experiencing partials. I'm still new to all of this, so........I have been told that an MRI to look for lesions and a sleep deprived EEG have been arranged but to anticipate a diagnosis of epilepsy and begin making myself familiar with it.

For anyone who takes the time to read this, thank you. It is all quite overwhelming. After learning about seizures, however, I have finally been able to articulate what has been happening to me, because prior it was just too difficult to explain.

 

[Nakamova]

Hi Miche.Seven, welcome to CWE!

First off, congrats (sort of!) for getting a handle on what's been going on with your brain. Partial seizures are less well-known than the convulsive ones, and the symptoms can be truly disorienting. I hope CWE can help you as you adjust to your diagnosis.

The ideal person to ask about the EEG results is your neuro. He'll know more about the particular kinds of waves that were slow, their rhythm, and their frequency -- all factors that are important when interpreting an EEG. Things like your age, your level of alertness, any medications, etc. are also relevant.

Broadly speaking, the hyperventilation part of an EEG is good at eliciting the kinds of waves associated with absence seizures (which are generalized rather than focal), so it's possible that you may be experiencing absence seizures in addition to the partials.

There's also a difference between the kinds of waveforms generated during a seizure (ictal) and those generated in between seizures (interictal). So it may be that you have a diffuse interictal pattern, but a focal one when you actually experiencing a simple or complex partial seizure.

Best,
Nakamova

 

[Miche.Seven]

Thanks so much for your response. It was very helpful. I was able to see a
Copy of my report and noted they diagnosed a seizure but non epilitiiform disturbances. During hyperventaltion: bursts of 2.5 Hz delta waves were recorded with diffuse distribution over both hemispheres. Bilateral synchrony and bifrontal amplitude predominance.

They said this is often found in people with a family history of idiopathic generalized epilepsy. I just discovered my paternal grandmother's brothers suffered from seizures. I have a scheduled sleep deprived eeg coming up. Can you help me better understand what it means to have a seizure but no epilitiiform activity? Has anyone experienced this and then been diagnosed with epilepsy? Thanks is much.

 

[Nakamova]

Can you help me better understand what it means to have a seizure but no epileptiform activity?

I'm not clear on what the report communicated.

1. Did the report definitively say that you had a seizure during the EEG? If so, what did it base this conclusion on? If there was no epileptiform activity on the EEG, then the only way to conclude that a seizure occurred during the test would have to observe suggestive clinical symptoms during the EEG (such as your twitching hand), and take that into consideration along with your symptom history.

2. Did the report definitely say that there was NO epileptiform activity during the EEG? If so, then the EEG wouldn't have pointed to a diagnosis one way or another. A negative EEG doesn't rule out epilepsy, but it wouldn't be used to rule it in.

It sounds like your symptom history and family history may make an epilepsy diagnosis likely, but the results of this first EEG were inconclusive. A sleep-deprived EEG is a good next step, since sleep deprivation tends to help produce the conditions where epileptiform brainwaves would appear.

 

[MAB]

Hi Everyone,

I am new here. I recently learned that the episodes I have been experiencing for the past few years, are actually partial/complex seizures. I'm ashamed to say, that prior to learning this, I had no idea of the complexity of epilepsy or even considered these episodes to be seizures.

I recently received the results of my EEG and was hoping some of you here could assist me. I told the neuro that following the HV of the EEG I felt like garbage and noticed my right hand twitched, went home and needed to sleep. Felt out of it after. After I explained this, he reviewed the results of the test and that following the hyperventilating portion of the test, there were abnormal discharges, a slowing of activity throughout my brain. I'm confused as to what this means and how come it is all over when I have been experiencing partials. I'm still new to all of this, so........I have been told that an MRI to look for lesions and a sleep deprived EEG have been arranged but to anticipate a diagnosis of epilepsy and begin making myself familiar with it.

For anyone who takes the time to read this, thank you. It is all quite overwhelming. After learning about seizures, however, I have finally been able to articulate what has been happening to me, because prior it was just too difficult to explain.

Welcome to the forum. This place has helped me to understand my partial seizures better than any place else I have found. I don't think it's unusual to have partial seizures for a long time before you get a diagnosis. Probably lots of people walking around with partials that have no idea what is wrong with them. I was very surprised to learn that my episodes were seizures also. Now that I have learned more (most of my learning from here) it all makes sense. I actually was beginning to think it was a metal condition I had. Now I know it is neurological.